With her deceased husband as her dowry, would Your Highness dare to marry her?

The charred petals fell onto Song Xuan's clothes. He sat up very slowly and gently, as if his soul had returned to its place, finally reviving after a hundred years of cultivation.

Finally, he sat up straight. In the dim cellar, his face was almost transparently white, with faint blue veins visible on his forehead. Beneath these veins, something seemed to surge in waves, like insects. His eyes were slightly closed, his long eyelashes trembling slightly, casting a faint shadow on his cheeks and obscuring the cinnabar mole beneath his eyes.

Lin Ci's breath caught in her throat. She couldn't believe her eyes. As if pulled by a thread, she moved closer, step by step...

Song Xuan was alive, truly alive! His complexion was more vibrant than when he was placed in the coffin, and his face was more real than in her dreams. She reached out with trembling hands, wanting to touch him, but as soon as she raised her hand, she realized with a start that her clothes were disheveled. She couldn't see him like this, absolutely not!

Lin Ci retreated to her original spot, feeling helpless.

She turned to look at Pei Jinxuan.

He was just as disheveled as she was, as if he had been caught in bed with someone cheating on him, his face etched with a deathly, ashen look of despair.

This was the first time Pei Jinxuan had witnessed the art of "resurrection," and he was completely stunned. The whole world seemed so unreal that he even suspected he had fallen into the underworld and was peeking at another version of himself through the cracks in the Yellow Springs. Only this other version of himself was more otherworldly and ethereal, like a celestial being who had accidentally fallen into the mortal realm, with a faint herbal fragrance surrounding him.

"He's awake?" Pei Jinxuan murmured.

Lin Ci did not respond. Her gaze returned to Song Xuan's face, and then she reached out her hand to the white-clad figure.

"Ah Xuan".

She didn't care about anything else; at this moment, all she wanted was to wake up the man she had sworn eternal love to and tell him that she had spent countless days and nights trying to bring him back to life, without ever wavering in her heart or falling in love with anyone else.

She used this resurrection to prove her sincerity, to prove her vow of lifelong commitment, and to prove that he was the only one in her heart.

"Ah Xuan".

With a soft call, Song Xuan slowly opened his eyes. His pupils were as black as ink, like an ancient pool at the deepest part of a cave, dark and cold, with something lurking beneath.

His eyes flickered, and Lin Ci's heart panicked. Her hand froze in mid-air, hesitant to drop it.

Click... click...

Song Xuan stiffly turned his head, his empty eyes staring straight at Lin Ci, then his nose twitched twice, as if he were sniffing something.

Click...

He turned his head again, his gaze falling on the bloodstains on Lin Ci's clothes. It was Pei Jinxuan's blood, the hot blood had dissipated, leaving only a rusty, fishy smell.

Song Xuan's serene face suddenly contorted. He grinned, revealing two rows of menacing teeth, with fragments of a kingfisher still lingering between them. A low, guttural roar, as if rising from the ground, ripped from his throat.

Boom!

A loud bang rang in their ears, and the coffin cracked open. Song Xuan, like a demon freed from its shackles, lunged forward.

Lin Ci stood there in a daze, her soul seemingly lost. A pair of large hands lifted her up in time, and she shot out of the cellar like an arrow. The heavy stone door behind her slammed shut with a thud.

With a loud bang, the stone gate trembled, and sand and soil fell in a flurry.

Pei Jinxuan closed the door bolt, locked it with an iron lock, and sealed the resurrected ghost behind the door.

The roars from inside the door were intermittent and muffled, but soon quieted down.

Pei Jinxuan pressed his ear against the cold stone door.

With a loud bang, the stone gate trembled violently, and roars rose again, one after another.

Song Xuan lingered behind the door without leaving, like a hunter lying in wait, waiting for the fish to take the bait.

"Hurry up!"

Pei Jinxuan regained his senses and, without saying a word, grabbed Lin Ci's hand and left the cellar. When they reached the end of the corridor, he turned around, closed the iron door, and added another lock.

A night breeze swept by, soaking the sweat off their bodies.

Pei Jinxuan couldn't help but shiver. He turned to look at Lin Ci. Lin Ci's face was paler than the moon in the sky, and terror was frozen in her eyes.

When faced with life and death, who has time to think about love, hate, and grudges?

What she didn't understand was that she had followed her master's instructions step by step, so why had she resurrected a Song Xuan who was neither human nor ghost?

Which step went wrong?

Where exactly did we go wrong?!

"Lin Ci".

Pei Jinxuan called out.

She didn't respond.

"Lin Ci," he called again. Only then did she turn her head, her eyes finally regaining some focus.

She looked at him, as if to confirm whether he had also seen that thing, the thing she had taken out of the coffin.

Pei Jinxuan nodded.

"That's not Song Xuan, Song Xuan wouldn't look like this... There must be something wrong, there must be..." Lin Ci stammered, touching her pocket as she spoke. Her booklet, which recorded her medication and symptoms, was left inside.

No, we have to get it back!

Thinking this, Lin Ci turned around, but Pei Jinxuan quickly pulled her back.

"Don't go!" His hoarse voice trembled slightly. He swallowed hard, forcing himself to remain calm. "First, figure out if that thing is even human."

"What if it isn't?"

"What's the point of keeping him here! Just because you made vows of eternal love with him, you won't let him rest in peace?"

"But isn't the 'resurrection' technique what you wanted? He can move... at least he can move!"

"It's true that I want to 'bring him back to life,' but that would be nothing more than 'a walking corpse.' If my brother were to become like that in the future, I would gladly bury him in the imperial mausoleum so that he could rest in peace!"

Lin Ci lowered her head, tears welling up in her eyes but refusing to fall. She looked back at the tightly closed iron gate for a long time, and vaguely, she seemed to hear a ghostly howl again.

Are we really going to leave him inside?

Her lover and her life's work were sealed away, never to see the light of day again.

Lin Ci was unwilling, but recalling Song Xuan's inhuman appearance just now, she didn't know what to do.

"I understand...I understand..." She temporarily put aside her gains and losses, feeling lost and disoriented, and walked towards the crescent-shaped gate like a wandering ghost.

Pei Jinxuan watched her lonely figure, and his heart ached again. He wanted to let her go, but after looking at her one more time, he couldn't help but step forward and hug her.

"You have no idea! You have no idea... how much I like you."

The person in his arms trembled slightly but did not respond.

The silver moonlight, like water, engulfed them in a small space; no matter how close they got, they felt cold from the inside out.

Lin Ci was tired and wanted to leave, but Pei Jinxuan refused to let go. He insisted on holding her hand tightly, as if that would hold onto her heart and soul.

"I don't believe... that you have no real feelings for me at all."

Pei Jinxuan stubbornly maintained a sliver of pride, unwilling to admit his defeat. Suddenly, he thought it wouldn't be so bad to be someone else's substitute. He lost his heart, retreating again and again, only wanting her to turn her head back.

Lin Ci gritted his teeth, twisted his shoulder, and the blow struck his wound squarely, causing him to gasp in pain.

In that blink of an eye, Lin Ci broke free from his embrace, and his figure disappeared behind the crescent-shaped doorway.

Pei Jinxuan stood there, clutching his injured shoulder, unsure of what to do.

Lin Ci hid by the latticed window, separated from him by a wall.

She dared not turn around or look, for she could no longer distinguish whether the person she dreamed of in the dead of night was Song Xuan or Pei Jinxuan.

She thought it was Song Xuan, but Song Xuan... couldn't speak.